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Could what's good for you be good for the planet?
One of the reasons that fad diets fail is not that they are physically bad for you (although some might be): the problem is that people can't adhere to the diet for the long haul. That's usually what I mean when I talk about a "sustainable" diet: I am talking about a pattern of eating that one can reasonably stick with for the long term.

Eating Healthy is About More than Dessert
One of the reasons I started the DrGourmet.com web site is because the amount of nutrition information available to people these days is just staggering. Governments issue complicated guidelines and tax or otherwise limit some foods (but not others). Newspapers report on nutrition research.

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Macronutrients vs. Overall Diet: Which is More Important?

It's an axiom among dietitians that "people eat food, not
macronutrients." That's one of the reasons that I find fad diets to be
so silly: so many of them demonize entire classes of foods ("all oils are
bad," "avoid all carbohydrates," "don't eat animal products"). While there
are those who may find these diets work for them, the vast majority
of people can't live with those diets for the long term.

The good news is that following a Mediterranean-style diet is easily
sustainable for the average American (as well as the rest of the
world). No foods are considered "bad," or off-limits, although certainly
some foods are to be eaten less often than others. For example, although
red meat should not be eaten nearly as often as fish, that doesn't
mean you shouldn't eat it at all: having a steak once every couple
of weeks is fine. (Read more about the 9 principles of the Mediterranean
Diet.)

A recent study performed in Sweden (AGE 2011;33:439-450) looked at the
diets of over 1,000 men and women who responded to a detailed dietary
questionnaire at the age of 70. The researchers were able to assign
a 9-point Mediterranean Diet score to each participant, with a higher
score meaning a better adherence to Mediterranean Diet principles.
They were also able to analyze each person's diet with respect to
macronutrients such as total carbohydrates, fiber, and saturated
and unsaturated fats.

Using Sweden's centralized medical records system, the researchers were
able to determine death dates and causes for those participants who
diet over the course of the study, which lasted an average of 8.5
years for each participant. The
scientists were then able to analyze the participants' overall mortality
(their risk of death from any cause) with respect to not only their
overall Mediterranean Diet score, but also with respect to the levels
of macronutrients in each person's diet.

They found, even after allowing for such variables as overall caloric
intake, age, gender, whether they smoked, or risk factors for heart
disease such as cholesterol scores or Body Mass Index, that there
was no significant association between levels of protein, fat or
carbohydrate intake and a participant's risk of death from any cause.

On the other hand, in line with other studies, they found that a Mediterranean
Diet score of 6 or above reduced a participant's risk of death from
any cause by 18% when compared to those with a score of 5 or below.
Interestingly, this held true even when the participant required
assistance with activities of daily life or were otherwise functionally
impaired due to their age.

What this means for you

It's clear that worrying about how many carbs you eat or whether you
eat any fat is not a strategy that's going to prolong your life.
Instead, focus on eating great food, with an emphasis on more vegetables,
legumes, fruits and nuts and whole grains, while eating more unsaturated
fats than saturated fats and more fermented dairy (such as yogurt
and not milk), eating less red meat and leaner meats, and drinking
moderately. You'll be eating well and eating healthy, while living
longer.